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2021 heated steering wheel Discussion thread

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I hope at the bare minimum its an option to upgrade. This morning I went out just to pick up some coffee. I'm sitting there in the drive-thru thinking these seat warmers are really nice, feels like I'm in a nice warm glove (never had a car with heated seats before). Then I thought a heated steering wheel would complete this experience .

I just put on autopilot and hold my coffee cup...and I have warm coffee and warm hands...?
 
On a separate service issue, thought I’d ask. Guess that settles that? Womp!
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On a separate service issue, thought I’d ask. Guess that settles that? Womp! View attachment 641382

Great idea messaging them. While my car is at the service center today. I sent them a message asking if my car is equipped with a heated steering wheel. This is the reply...

It's actually a hardware item, so you'd need to swap out your steering wheel. It's something we've been told will be a retrofit in the future but no ETA or mention of cost yet. If I had to guess I'd say end of this year they'd have a retrofit option available for prior owners to add the heated steering wheel.
 
Looks to be around the late Jan/early Feb builds.
I remember someone said they had a 901xxx VIN that had it. I’m 902xxx with a Feb 1 build date (delivered on the 4th). so, you are pretty correct on late, late Jan build dates.
Now, is it only LR and Performance builds that are getting them? Seems like they are going to software lock on the SR+?

@Jaenonymous - I wouldn’t trust any service advisors at this point. When I brought my car in for service, they were ALL surprised that I had a heated steering wheel. They only thought the S and X had them.
 
I remember someone said they had a 901xxx VIN that had it. I’m 902xxx with a Feb 1 build date (delivered on the 4th). so, you are pretty correct on late, late Jan build dates.
Now, is it only LR and Performance builds that are getting them? Seems like they are going to software lock on the SR+?
Given the setting is on the same screen that the rear heated seats (which are not standard on the SR+, although you can unlock for $300) are on, that may be related.
 
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I picked up my M3 on December 29th. No heated wheel. Here's my take on this:
  • We know some M3s have heated wheels upon purchase, but no one has reported going from unheated to heated via software update.
  • This may imply that if you don't already have it, you won't be getting it - BUT...
  • All 2021 refresh M3s have a steering wheel that is different from the 2020
It seems unlikely to me that they would design a new steering wheel capable of housing a resistive heating wire but then begin manufacturing them for 2 months *without* that heating wire. It seems more likely that all 2021 refresh M3s have the hardware for heated steering, but that not all have the software. Maybe they want to release this as a paid option for a few hundred bucks down the road. Too soon and people will feel cheated.

That said, this is just a guess. Perhaps they were still waiting on parts from suppliers and needed to ship a bunch of cars without heated wheels.
 
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That said, this is just a guess. Perhaps they were still waiting on parts from suppliers and needed to ship a bunch of cars without heated wheels.

Seems unlikely that they'd ship two different wheel designs, but anything's possible! Mine was built late Dec 2020 and has no heated wheel. Interesting to note that the Tesla website still doesn't show the model 3 as having heated wheel as a feature. You'd think if a feature is available with all the cars they're selling, they wouldn't hide it for no reason...

ps. Checked Tesla china's website. Only the Premium + interior has heated steering wheel listed as a feature!
 
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Unless they installed two different steering wheels? Don't really think they would do that. I wonder if someone had a way to do an X-ray of a few of the different model wheels.. it could probably tell us more.

There is a YTer that has a June 2020 Model Y and ordered the new heated steering wheel, which is the same as the 3 of course, and there is in fact, two different wheels that are upgraded. One is heated, and one is not, and they both have the same sku. They sent him the non-heated wheel by mistake, so he sent it back and is waiting on the heated wheel arrive to put in.
 
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There is a YTer that has a June 2020 Model Y and ordered the new heated steering wheel, which is the same as the 3 of course, and there is in fact, two different wheels that are upgraded. One is heated, and one is not, and they both have the same sku. They sent him the non-heated wheel by mistake, so he sent it back and is waiting on the heated wheel arrive to put in.
I think this is slightly inaccurate (about same SKU), I think, no offence.

There is quite a bit of confusion over the parts and I suspect only Tesla know what's what.

I had a long chat with a UK Tesla tech earlier in the week about sourcing a heated steering wheel for my 2020 M3P (which never had one of course) and he told me the following:

There are two seperate steering wheel assembly parts in the EPCs now, both Europe and US. For MIC cars, the part number for the heated steering wheel is 1490214-CN-B - M3Y - HEAT SW ASSY, PUR, MadeInChina. For US Model 3 and Y, it is 1490214-00-B - M3Y - HEAT SW ASSY, PUR. The tech thinks these wheels are essentially identical and just have different SKUs for the purposes of logistics.

There is also a 1095222-90-O part code on both US and Europe EPCs. The tech told me that this is the "latest design" of the steering wheel - i.e. metal scroll wheel, no cuts at the top, but is NOT heated.

In the UK at least - the price of the MIC and US heated wheel is £975.00. The other wheel (same for EU/US) is £475.00.

He is "99% sure" that the only cars that have the heated steering wheel hardware are cars being delivered now from Shanghai (Europe) and Fremont (US), because of the price delta and the fact there are - even today - two separate part numbers for the steering wheel assembly.

He also ran a MY21 MIC SR+ and LR VIN through their systems and told me that they both give him the same MIC steering wheel part for reordering. Given that MIC SR+s are being delivered in the UK without the heated steering wheel being activated, and LRs are - this points to Tesla offering a (paid) OTA upgrade like rear heated seats for MY21 SR+ owners soon.

People in the UK who have collected their cars have also been able to upgrade to 2020.4.11 - the latest mainline firmware - and STILL have heated steering wheel activated. This blows apart the logic that its availabe only on the funky delivery firmware, and everyone with a one-piece/metal scroll wheel car is just waiting for a special firmware update one day to finally get it.

There may be a crossover period with parts where some people got a 1490214-00-B wheel installed, but it hasn't been activated, but it seems logical to assume that only cars being delivered now definitively have it.

I've ordered a MIC steering wheel to install in my 2020 M3P. I'm not expecting the heating to work, but should be interesting to see whether a) the option to buy heating appears in the app when it does for MY21 SR+ owners or b) the car can be coded to have the feature enabled.

For what it's worth - although it might seem strange for Tesla to supply a redesigned wheel without the internal heating hardware, it isn't outside the realm of possibility. They did after all change the wing mirror harnesses three times to provide dimming, take it away, then bring it back again.
 
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